A Hasty Pudding To Bake In A Dish

This pudding recipe comes from an English household manuscript compiled between roughly 1675 and 1750, reflecting the tastes and methods of elite or aspiring households of the period. Such handwritten collections often combined traditional English fare with European influences, seen here in the use of wine (Sack) and rosewater, both luxury ingredients of the time. Hasty puddings began as humble stove-top porridges but, as prosperity and ingredient access increased, were increasingly enriched with cream, eggs, butter, sugar, and delicate flavorings. This baked variant demonstrates a transition from simple, utilitarian nourishment to something altogether more luxurious and festive—likely served on special occasions or to notable guests.

Back in the day, this pudding would have been prepared using a large hearth or open fire, with a heavy-bottomed pan or cauldron for gently heating and thickening the cream and oatmeal. Mixing would be done with wooden spoons or whisks made from birch twigs. Butter was lavishly used to grease an earthenware or metal baking dish. The whole would be baked in a large, wood-fired oven, with careful attention paid to temperature; household cooks developed a keen sense for timing by feel and by visual cues, such as the pudding's rise.